


Watcher of the Seals

by Anonymous



Category: Wheel of Time - Robert Jordan
Genre: Documentation, Multi, obituary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-14
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:55:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25261204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A belated obituary for Siuan Sanche.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 6
Collections: Anonymous, Unconventional Fanwork Exchange 2020





	Watcher of the Seals

**Author's Note:**

  * For [primeideal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/primeideal/gifts).



Published by the Academy of the Rose in Caemlyn as part of their ongoing series of contemporary history. During and before the events of Tarmon Gai’don, catastrophic changes wrought the Westlands, many of which did not prove as noteworthy as they might have in more peaceful eras. In an effort to commemorate some of these lesser-known occurrences and deaths, these chronicles were commissioned by Queen Elayne. The first installment was a tribute to the life of Marshal-General Davram Bashere.

**Siuan Sanche: 958-1000 NE**

Official White Tower histories only list two Amyrlin Seats who were deposed, stilled, and died in disgrace: Bonwhin Meraighdin and Tetsuan. Recent scholarship suggests there are likely many more coups and exiles that were hidden behind the Tower’s united front. Nevertheless, historians agree that no woman had ever been raised as Amyrlin, overthrown by her sisters, severed from the One Power, and then miraculously restored as an Aes Sedai, until the remarkable tenure of Siuan Sanche. As a former leader stripped of her prior strength, Sanche maneuvered among the Salidar Tower-in-Exile, guiding and mentoring her successor Egwene al’Vere, and fought with courage in the Last Battle.

Siuan Sanche was born in Tear in 958 NE to a family of working-class fishers. In keeping with the city’s fear and distrust of the One Power, she journeyed to Tar Valon as soon as her affinity with _saidar_ became clear, and completed her studies as a Novice and Accepted unusually quickly. Sanche was raised to the Blue Ajah, and soon became appointed leader of their eyes-and-ears network. “Siuan was zealous about keeping up with correspondence from every nation,” recalls Maigan Tensar, a long-serving Blue sister. “She instilled on us that a fisherman could change the world every bit as well as a king.”

Upon the untimely death of Marith Jaen, the Hall raised Sanche, at a mere thirty years of age, to the Amyrlin Seat. “We would never have put it in so crude terms,” says Lelaine Akashi, a Sitter from the Blue, “but there was an understanding that Jaen, a former Blue, ought to have lived much longer. Besides that, many of the Reds were in disgrace after a crusade to hunt down hidden male channellers went far beyond the acceptable boundaries. Raising Siuan was seen as a concession to the Blue—she might have served for centuries, in a quieter age.”

While the first decade of Sanche’s tenure may have seemed quiet, she was attempting to organize the Tower’s resources to support the Dragon Reborn once he revealed himself. “She had a fish in every pan and every burner was heating its own plot,” reminisces Laras Gemman, Mistress of the Kitchens. “Not to say that she was all closed-off, not at all. She could talk your ear off if she had a mind to, and curse like a soldier, too.” Sanche would court controversy by tasking young Novices and an Accepted with hunting Black Ajah traitors who had left the Tower. “You could say being young for an Amyrlin gave her the nerve to do what others wouldn’t,” Gemman says, “but as I see it, isn’t the age of your bones but the strength in your heart what makes a woman, and Light knows those girls were as strong as any.”

Inter-Ajah tensions came to a head with Sanche’s deposal and stilling; Elaida do Avriny a’Roihan was elected Amyrlin during the coup. Sanche and her former Keeper, Leane Sharif, managed to escape imprisonment in Tar Valon and reunite with the Salidar exiles. “We really didn’t know much about stilling except in the abstract,” says Sharif. “But we all knew that the way to survive was to dedicate yourself to something new, something that can try to fill the void left by _saidar_. For me, part of that was rediscovering intimacy and allowing myself to connect with people in a way I hadn’t as an Aes Sedai. For Logain [Ablar], it was about revenge on the Reds who had gentled him. And for Siuan, I think it was about ensuring the Tower had a strong Amyrlin to take her place, even in exile.”

“It was discomforting, how differently people looked at us after we’d been stilled,” Sharif adds. “But we were able to use that to our advantage. Even the Salidar rebels expected resigned, hopeless women; they didn’t really see us as Keeper and Amyrlin, and Siuan was able to use that to help direct them without the title of a leader.”

But unlike other Aes Sedai who spent the rest of their lives longing to regain _saidar_ , Sanche and Sharif would be Healed by Nynaeve al’Meara’s astonishing discovery. “If that had occurred only a few years later, we would have known to take her to Asha’man Flinn,” says Myrelle Berengari, one of Sanche’s confidantes in Salidar. “But no use dwelling on what could be. As greatly as the world has changed around us, that shouldn’t overshadow how strong a leader Siuan was when the Tower needed her.”

Having fallen in the Tower’s unofficial hierarchy, Sanche turned her attention to molding al’Vere into a decisive commander in her own right. “al’Vere was exceptionally raised from the Accepted, in part as a compromise among the Ajahs,” recounts Akashi. “That she was able to assume the responsibilities of the Amyrlin in truth is a blessing of the light, but also a testament to Siuan’s prudence.”

Sanche continued serving the forces of the Light as Tarmon Gai’don drew near, fighting Black Ajah in _Tel’aran’rhiod_ and on the Kandor front with the Tower army. She was killed defending General Matrim Cauthon at Dashar Knob during the confrontation at Merrilor.

Sanche was predeceased by her parents, Durlau Sanche and Ruveme Coslata Sanche; her uncles Trovin Sanche and Pravo Coslata; and her first Warder, Alric Jevish, who was executed during the coup. Following her in the Creator’s peace are her protege al’Vere and Gareth Bryne, who was Sanche’s Warder in her final weeks and killed in the bloodlust avenging her.

“He may have once been a Captain-General and her the Amyrlin Seat, but burn me if they didn’t moon over each other like Domani youths,” summarizes the blunt Sharif. “The Dark One’s hand was heavy on the world, but not even he could prevent them from recognizing they loved each other and weren’t just bound by oaths or visions or the like.”

Sanche is survived by her sister, Laine Otammu Sanche; her uncles Firrel, Gyrsen, Irvet, and Waedra Coslata and Ofdal and Quandi Sanche; Sharif, her devoted colleague; and her close friend and partner of their Novice and Accepted years, Moiraine Damodred.

“I felt Siuan’s loss many times over,” reflects Damodred. “When people outside, or even within, the Tower judged the love of two Accepted to be less than that between men and women. When we realized that serving the Tower and the Light would require us to go separate ways—even from youth, she was already a shrewder stateswoman than me, and rose higher in the Tower than I ever could. When I heard she had been deposed, not knowing if she lived or died. When I was—near dead, absent from the world for what might have been a lifetime. And when I heard she had truly died that day in Merrilor.”

“I pray that she might flourish more deeply next time she is spun out,” Damodred concludes. “But I know that there _will_ be a next time, because of everything we worked for and sacrificed. And I know I speak for both of us when I say we would do it all again.”


End file.
